


James' Furry Little Problems

by FrozenRose



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Marauders, Marauders' Era, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-11
Updated: 2014-12-11
Packaged: 2018-03-01 02:37:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2756411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrozenRose/pseuds/FrozenRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, a dog isn't necessarily man's best friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	James' Furry Little Problems

**Author's Note:**

> Before we begin, I just want to give a wholehearted thank you to the fantastical LizzieBanner, who, along with my lovely boyfriend, helped me develop this idea along with being so kind as to beta read it for me. Thank you, and I love you both with everything I have to give <3

_Bink. Bink. Bink. Bink. Bink._ “Sirius, would you _stop_ that?” Remus snapped, finally looking up from the Muggle Studies essay in front of him to confront his friend, who had been ripping up small pieces of parchment and throwing them to hit Remus in the forehead.

“Oh come on Remus, stop being such a sourwolf,” Sirius pouted playfully, placing his chin in his hand and flicking one last piece of parchment at Remus. “I'm just trying to have a little fun.”

“You can't have that fun with someone else?” Remus sneered, turning back to the work in front of him.

“Let me check,” Sirius straightened back up to look around the empty Gryffindor common room. “Nope, doesn't look like I can.” He turned back to Remus and went back to pouting, perching his chin on his palm once more, “Tell me again why we couldn't go to Hogsmeade with everyone else? It's the last trip of the year; I wanted to stock up at Zonko's before the summer.”

“We're still here because we have final exams coming up soon, if you'll recall,” Remus pointed out. “That means that you need to spend your time studying, not coming up with some ridiculous scheme like you always are.”

“Well can't we at least go outside?” Sirius groaned, getting up from the table and crossing to look out the window, “It's such a gorgeous day out; I don't see any reason why we should keep ourselves caged in this damn tower like animals.”

“Need I remind you we spend a substantial amount of time _as_ animals?” Remus glanced up to look at Sirius with a smirk.

“Yes, I'm a _ware_ of how much time we spend as animals, thanks to you,” Sirius shot back, turning to lean back against the window.

Remus was about to retort, but before he could the sound of footsteps came from the staircases. Both boys turned towards the noise, soon seeing James come down the stairs, a certain spring in his step that neither had really seen before. “Well, don't you seem like a happy little buck,” Sirius chuckled.

“What's got you prancing about like that?” Remus asked, turning back to his essay to continue writing.

James didn't respond right away, instead plopping in the seat across from Remus and absentmindedly fidgeting with his wand. “Oh, nothing special,” he said after a few seconds, “I just happen to have a date with one Lily Evans in Hogsmeade today.”

“WHAT?” Sirius yelped as Remus' quill clattered to the table. “You have a date with WHO?”

“You heard me,” James responded.

“We are talking about the same person, right?” Remus was incredulous, his eyes narrowing curiously. “Lily Evans. Red hair, green eyes, potion master's favorite?”

“Not to mention feisty and _way_ out of your league,” Sirius put in, coming back to join the other two at the table.

“That's the one,” James nodded, “But I wouldn't say out of my league, considering she agreed to go out with me.”

“You're joking,” Remus raised an eyebrow.

“How on earth did you manage THAT?” Sirius crossed his arms with a huff, “Did she lose a bet or something? Or did you just use a confundus charm?”

Remus rolled his eyes, “Come now, Sirius, don't be such a pessimistic pooch. She might have actually said yes on her own.”

Sirius barked out a laugh, “Now that would be the day. Come on now Prongs, how'd you do it?”

“Wouldn't you like to know?” James quipped, glancing at his watch for a moment before pushing back from the table to stand. “Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I need to get going. I've got a dear one to find."

“Gonna have a hell of a time, considering everyone left ages ago,” Remus pointed out, picking up his quill. “How are you going to even get there, anyway?”

“I told her to meet me by the one-eyed-witch,” James shrugged, twirling his wand between his fingers, “Thought I'd show her one of the passageways. And with that, I must leave you. Have fun working your tails off, you two.”

James trotted out of the room, the creaking of the entrance's portrait soon indicating his departure. As soon as the entrance closed with a _thud_ , Remus could see a wide grin spread over Sirius' face. It didn't take much thought to figure out what was going through his head, either. “What did I say about harebrained schemes?” he sighed, finally turning back to his essay to pick up where he'd left off.

“Oh come on, I'm getting cabin fever here,” Sirius whimpered, “Please?”

“Sirius, no. You have homework to do. _We_ have homework to do.”

“But... but Moony, I already have the plan and everything!”

Remus sighed, knowing that once Sirius gets like this it's nearly impossible to change his mind. “I'm going to regret asking this, but what exactly would this plan entail?”

“It's nothing extravagant, promise,” Sirius reassured him before a mischievous smirk worked its way into his expression, “It just might en _tail_ a little bit of your help.”

“Well too bad, you aren't getting it,” Remus stated. “I'm staying right here and getting my work done.”

“You sure about that?” Sirius asked, and suddenly the parchment was ripped out from under Remus' quill, causing him to look up and see Sirius sprinting out of the common room, Remus' bag and supplies in his hands.

“Bloody hell, SIRIUS!” Remus bellowed, scrambling up from the table to run after his friend. God he was going to murder that stupid dog.

===

This day could not have been better for James Potter. He had to admit, he'd been shocked too when Evans had finally agreed to go out with him, but he wasn't about to admit that to Remus and Sirius. They were already never going to let him hear the end of this; why make it any worse on himself?

Luckily, the day as a whole had been going quite well; after sneaking their way through the one-eyed-witch passageway and into Honeydukes, James and Lily had spent the day walking around Hogsmeade, beginning by marveling at the sweet displays the candy shop had to offer and continuing to wander from there. They shared a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks, then continued on to wander their way through Tomes and Scrolls (Lily had wanted to see if they had a new potions recipe book in stock), and had even spent a large amount of time in Zonko's, where James had probably put a bit too much effort into making her laugh at every possible moment. He just couldn't help it, though; he completely adored seeing those doe-eyes of her light up with every giggle.

After that, they had retreated towards a less crowded portion of the town, following the path leading towards the Shrieking Shack. As they walked, Lily told James fascinating stories of her muggle life back at home; he'd never even heard of things like “fairy tales” and “urban legends” before. Lily had been in the middle of one of these stories as they approached the end of the path, and as the stark image of the shack loomed ahead she trailed off, eyes going wide. “You all right there, Evans?” James asked, noticing her pause.

“Y-yeah, I'm fine,” Lily nodded quickly, “I've just never been this close to the building before. Always only ever seen it from further away, is all.”

“Oh, the shack?” James looked towards the building, scoffing. “There's nothing to it; it's all just stories, trust me.”

“You sure?” Lily seemed apprehensive, “I've heard that people hear someone... some _thing_ screaming there. It's supposed to be haunted, right?”

James bit back a loud laugh, instead jogging forward slightly to sit on a nearby patch of grass, “I thought a smart girl like you would know that there's no such thing as a bad place. Even in the world of wizards. Believe me when I tell you there's nothing frightening about that old house.”

“All right, all right,” Lily nodded, sitting down next to James on the ground and leaning back on her hands to look at the clouds rolling lazily overhead. “So, tell me something,” she turned to James, “All day I've been expecting either Remus or Sirius to show up; it's not often to see you without at least one of them around.”

James chuckled, nodding slightly as he lay flat on his back, “I know, but last I saw them they were in the common room doing homework. Well, Remus was doing homework anyway. Sirius, I have not a bloody clue.” He shrugged, “Not that it really matters; I'd rather be spending the day with you anyway.”

Lily didn't respond to that immediately, but a small smile tugged at her lips as her cheeks began to flush. In what was likely an effort to hide it, she turned away from James to look back up at the sigh, and James let out a sigh of content. He had honestly been expecting either Remus or Sirius to show up over the course of the day, too; knowing he had a date planned with Lily was a prime opportunity Sirius was almost definitely going to want to take advantage of. Still, it was refreshing that neither had seemed to appear. Guess Remus was able to keep Sirius held up in the common room after all.

No sooner had he thought it when James suddenly heard the familiar sound of paws scampering across fallen leaves nearby. Oh no. This was NOT about to happen.

“RUFF!” a gruff bark sounded from behind them, and James and Lily both sat straight up, turning to see a large black mass hurling towards the both of them, promptly bowling right into Lily and knocking her to the ground. Once it had stopped, the blur took the shape of a fluffy black dog, standing over Lily and excitedly licking her face as the witch giggled in delight.

“Get off of her you mutt!” James sprung into action, shoving the dog off of Lily and letting her straighten up again. As she brushed herself off, James glared at the dog, but that playful spark in its eyes told him all he needed to know. He should have known Sirius was going to show his face somehow. “I wouldn't get too close to that thing, Evans,” he placed a hand on Lily's shoulder, “That mangy thing is probably riddled with fleas.”

“Oh you worry too much,” Lily brushed off his comment, shrugging off his hand extending one of her own towards the dog, “You didn't want to hurt anyone, right?”

James' jaw dropped open as, in a shocking display of restraint, Sirius slowly padded back over to them, gently nudging her palm with his nose. Lily giggled, reaching to scratch behind his ears while turning back to James, “See? Harmless.”

James was about to retort before another voice sounded, much to his dismay, “Padfoot! Come back here!” Sirius promptly bounded away, happily striding over to where Remus was walking towards them from farther up the path. James and Lily both stood up as Remus waved over to them, “Sorry about that! Normally he doesn't run away like that, guess he's just a little jumpy today is all.”

“Oh, it's not a problem at all,” Lily chirped as Remus approached, “No need to worry!”

“Even though you might want to think about getting him neutered,” James said, fighting to keep his voice even as Sirius looked up at him, eyes burning. “Might help keep him a bit more calm in the future.”

“Note taken,” Remus nodded, reaching into his bag to pull out a black collar and matching leash. “In the meantime though, this should help.”

Once Remus had fastened the collar and leash around Sirius' neck, James internally cheered as Sirius turned his head to look at Remus, giving the boy a bark that almost sounded indignant. Remus smiled slightly, reaching to scratch “Padfoot” behind his ear, “Hello to you by the way, Lily. I didn't expect to find you here; I thought that James was coming stag today.”

Lily shrugged, “I thought that I would keep him company today; I don't want to think about what kind of trouble Potter would get into without someone around to keep an eye on him.”

“Fair point,” Remus chuckled, earning a frustrated eye roll from James.

“But it is nice to see you too, Remus,” Lily continued. “I'm a bit shocked, though; I would have expected Sirius to be with you.”

“That's a fair point, Remus,” James nodded, looking to Remus and raising an eyebrow, “Where _is_ Sirius? Last I saw he was with you.”

“We did actually come together,” Remus explained, “But as soon as we reached the village he just ran off; probably chasing some tail somewhere.” Almost as if on cue, Sirius tugged away from Remus enough to begin chasing his own tail in a circle, causing Lily to laugh harder than James had managed to all day.

James fought back a groan; this was a bloody disaster. Leave it to Sirius to ruin the entire day in a matter of minutes. Without even saying a damn word, no less! “You can't be serious,” he mumbled under his breath, pushing a hand through his hair.

“RUFF!” a happy bark erupted from Sirius at that, and James looked to the dog to see he had stopped running around, instead looking to James with his tail wagging frantically behind him. In his eyes James could see that spark of laughter Sirius always had, and it took all the effort he had to not change into a stag and impale his friend right then and there.

“Come on, Evans,” James lightly wrapped an arm around Lily's shoulders, turning her away from the pair before they could do any more damage, “Let's go warm up with some tea before we go back to the castle.” Lily just nodded, walking along with James as he turned back to look over his shoulder at Remus one last time, “See you back at the castle, Moony!”

Remus waved good-bye to James, and Sirius trod over to sit next to him, a smirk visible on his face even in his canine form.“By the way,” Lily asked, “Why do you call Remus Moony?” James sighed, turning back to look up the path in front of him. He was going to have some choice words with those two once he got back to the castle.

 


End file.
